Homemade Wedding in a Village Hall – Quirky Colourful & Relaxed

Homemade Wedding

Relaxed, homemade, quirky, colourful!

Phoebe and Tom

WWW readers Phoebe and Tom are joining us with their totally awesome homemade wedding today. They tied the knot on the 27th April 2019 at Chester Town Hall followed by a village hall reception at Eccleston Village Hall in Cheshire. Their day was truly them, at the heart of their planning was “a proper good knees up“. I think if you keep in mind that your wedding is a jolly good party, you can’t go far wrong with ensuring it’s a total blast right?! For their wedding day style they were inspired by the film, Moonrise Kingdom as well as a country garden vibe. The results were just glorious! Think handmade bunting, greenery hoops, rustic signs and the prettiest flowers.

Phoebe wore a beautiful blush gown and Tom chose a navy suit and orange tie. They both looked really stunning. Look out for the really tall semi naked cake with cute toppers, the smoke bombs and the brilliant confetti moment. Just amazing.

A huge thank you goes to Wyldbee Photography for sharing with us these spectacular images. What a feast for the eyes.

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The Proposal

Tom had booked a night away in Manchester for my (Phoebe) birthday. We went out for dinner and drinks, and poor Tom had been waiting for the perfect moment to propose, then when we got back to the room, he finally popped the question.

The Vision

We really wanted our wedding to reflect us and we were never going to have a super traditional marriage. The main goal was to have a day that everyone could enjoy and have a proper good knees up! The aesthetic was influenced by country garden meets Wes Anderson’s film Moonrise Kingdom, with a touch of whimsy.

The Planning Process

We ended up spending about a year and a half planning the wedding. At times it was difficult as I had a specific idea in my head of how I wanted our day to be and I know that makes me quite awkward to plan with! Once we all could see the vision it really did come together.

Bridesmaids

Bridesmaid dresses came from Dorothy Perkins.

Beauty

Phoebes hair was done by Samantha Gannon who was recommended by a friend, and she did a wonderful job, even the the wind tried it’s best to undo all her hard work!

Make up was by Made up by Cathryn.

Your Outfits & Accessories

As with most aspects of the wedding, the dress took a long time to decide on! We went dress shopping about four times and then ended up buying the dress a liked on the first trip! Dress is Olivia by Rebecca Ingram in blush bought from Aristocrats in Chester. Hair piece and earrings were Jon Richards which I bought online. I fell in love with my Charlotte Mills shoes online and knew I just had to have them!

The Venue

We really wanted a relaxed venue that we could really transform and make our own. We saw several venues with no luck as it never quite right. One day I (Phoebe) was out with my mum having afternoon tea after being to see a few places and I suggested popping across to Eccleston village to have a look at the village hall. Once we got there the place was all locked, but we peaked through the windows and I just knew this was the perfect place for us! Once the reception venue was booked we decided to have our ceremony at Chester Town Hall in the council chambers.

The Readings & Music

Phoebe’s eldest brother Richard played guitar for our guests as they came into the ceremony which was really special as he played some of our favourite songs. She walked down the aisle to hysterics-yeah yeah yeah. It took a long time to pick the music that I wanted to walk down the aisle to, but now I can’t listen to it without crying!

We had two readings, one read by Tom’s brother, Max, and one by one of Phoebe’s brothers. Our readings were very personal to us and have since had one printed to hang in our first house. The first was the lyrics to the song Love by Go It Alone, and our second was an exert from one of our favourite books, The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman.

I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I’ll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again… I’ll be looking for you, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we’ll cling together so tight that nothing and no one’ll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you… We’ll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams… And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won’t just be able to take one, they’ll have to take two, one of you and one of me.

The Details & Décor

Our theme for the reception was influenced by the film Moonrise Kingdom, the British countryside with homemade touches. We hired our chairs and bar from Rustic Hire which helped to transform the village hall. Pretty much anything that we could do ourselves for the wedding, we did! Phoebe’s mum spent weeks hand sewing all the bunting, all the place settings were spray painted by us, the invitations were designed by one of Phoebe’s brothers and even the beer was made by Tom! The ceiling hoops were normal hula hoops bought off eBay, spray painted, then wrapped in ivy and had little lights suspended from them.

Groomsmen

All suits were hired from Groom in Chester.

The Flowers

The bouquets and the head table flowers were done by Wild Floral Design in Chester. They have the most beautiful shop so I recommend you to go visit! All the others flowers were done by an amazing family friend who helped us so much to bring our day together!

Your Photographer

We used Wyldbee Photography and we couldn’t recommend Sophie enough! She did an amazing job of capturing the magic of our day even in the adverse conditions! Myself and Tom are not the most natural in front of the camera but she really helped to put us at ease and gave us the most beautiful keepsake from our day.

The Cake

The cake was one layer lemon, a carrot cake and topped with traditional fruit cake. Hidden amongst the flowers on the cake was a little figure of our cat Nym which was such a cute little touch! The cake toppers were handmade out of felt by a friend of my mothers which we have since re-purposed into Christmas decorations for our tree!

The Honeymoon

The day after the wedding we headed to Port Metion in North Wales for a few relaxing nights.

Memorable Moments

The whole wedding? One of the things we remember most was just how much we laughed the whole day.

Drinks on the boat to our reception venue.

The marquee almost blowing away.

Eating pizza on the dancefloor.

The bridal party walking up the track laughing in the rain.

Everyone singing along to Teenage Dirtbag.

Advice For Other Couples

Don’t sweat the small stuff! It does all come together in the end.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

What a very special day indeed. There is always something so wonderful about a homemade wedding isn’t there?

Phoebe and Tom thank you both ever so much for sharing your lovely celebrations on WWW xo Lou